Walking & Cycling
Blacksmiths Cottage is the perfect base for walking and cycling.
Offa’s Dyke, the long distance footpath running for a total of 180 miles north – south along the ancient border of England and Wales is a few miles away to the west with lots of good walking paths close to the Cottage.
Quiet local roads provide excellent cycling routes both for the speed enthusiast and for those who want to potter about and use bikes as a means of enjoying and seeing the countryside. There are lots of scenic cycle rides straight from the gate: it is simple, for example to find a very quiet circular route which takes in Knighton and Presteigne or Brampton Bryan, Leintwardine and Ludlow.
Visit Gardens and Castles
Hampton Court, Leominster One of the most ambitious new gardens in England for 100 years. Original Victorian garden walls enclose stunning new flower gardens divided by canals, island pavilions and pleached avenues. The kitchen garden is an ornamental garden of fruit and vegetables. There is a maze of a thousand yews with a gothic tower at its centre. Beautiful herbaceous borders stretch out from a one hundred and fifty year old wisteria tunnel that leads to vast lawns and ancient trees beside the castle. A good restaurant/cafe in the Orangery.
Hergest Croft Gardens, Kington Extend over 28 ha (70 acres) with more than 5000 rare trees and shrubs described as ‘one of the finest collections of trees and shrubs in Britain’. The six distinct areas are Hergest Croft Garden, the Azalea Garden and the Maple Grove, the Kitchen Garden and the Park and Park Wood.
Bryan’s Ground, Stapleton Three acres of intimate garden rooms, designed by David Wheeler and Simon Dorrell and furnished with follies and fragrant flowers, towers and topiary, pools and a potager, and paths to five acres of specimen trees on the banks of a river, on the border with Wales. Home to the best selling and much praised garden quarterly Hortus.
Ludlow Castle began in the late 11th Century as the border stronghold of the Marcher Lord, Roger De Lacy. In 1501 Prince Arthur, son of Henry VII and brother to Henry VIII, with his bride Catherine of Aragon, lived here for a short time before his early death. Queen Mary Tudor and her court spent three winters at Ludlow between 1525 and 1528.
Stokesay Castle, at Craven Arms 7 miles North West of Ludlow off the A49, is not really a castle at all, it is the finest and best preserved 13th century fortified manor house in England dating back to 1281. Open every day in the summer.
Eat in or Out
Ludlow was described by the Economist magazine as the food capital of England. It continues to have a range of good restaurants and pubs, a Tesco supermarket and the prize winning Ludlow Food Centre is just outside the town to the north on the A49.
The nearest supermarket to The Cottage is the legendary Harry Tuffins at Knighton about 10 minutes away and Presteigne has a busy high street with good food shops and an excellent Wine Bar
The Stagg at Titley with a Michelin star offers some of the best food to be eaten in the area. The Lion at Leintwardine and the Jolly Frog (specialising in good fish and with a wood fired pizza oven too!) are both excellent local restaurants.